“This Is It” producer Kenny Ortega has signed on to direct the screen version of “In the Heights” for Universal. Sources said that Ortega — who recently backed out of “Footloose” over reported differences with Paramount Pictures — was brought into the “In the Heights” project by Superb Entertainment’s Meryl Poster after she took him to dinner in Washington Heights. The Tony-winning Broadway musical, meanwhile, will soon star Ortega’s “High School Musical” protégé, Corbin Bleu.